对于Gilmore和Garza来说, the solution to their problems was the same: free tuition at one of five 圣安东尼奥 community colleges, 由一个名为“阿拉莫承诺”的新项目提供. 两人不仅都即将毕业,而且都在朝着明确的职业目标努力. 吉尔摩拥有4分.0 grade-point average as a political science major at 西北维斯塔学院 和 hopes to become a lawyer. 加尔扎按计划将在圣. 这将使他有资格在油田找到一份收入丰厚的工作.
Similar “promise” programs that pay for local high school students’ tuition have multiplied throughout the country. 全国有400多个这样的项目,仅德克萨斯州就有10个 宾夕法尼亚大学的数据库.
但阿拉莫承诺的学生得到的不仅仅是免学费. 五所参与院校, 被称为澳门新葡京博彩区,服务超过68人,000名学生, 也为所有学生提供广泛的服务, from low-cost healthcare to food pantries at each campus to several 托儿所 programs that can cost pa租金s as little as $10 a week. 一项紧急经济援助计划可以帮助学生支付汽车修理费, 租金, 或者符合条件的医疗需求.
And although many of the Promise students would qualify for enough financial aid to attend college for free without this program, 弄清楚如何完成所有的要求可能是令人生畏的. 这个过程“对学生来说很难理解”,劳拉·佩纳说, 他是高等教育专家,宾夕法尼亚大学副教务长. “这是一个明确的信息,没有附加条款.”
That simple offer 和 the program’s additional support services have been especially important in the wake of the p和emic. 他们似乎正在推动更多的第一代和低收入家庭的学生接受高等教育.
阿拉莫五所学院的总入学人数下降了约5%.5%从2020年秋季到2021年秋季, 但“承诺”项目的25所高中的入学人数却有所下降 拱顶17%校长迈克·弗洛雷斯说.
在项目第二年的秋季学期, 5所阿拉莫大学录取了2人,423名学生, 其中87%是西班牙裔,6%是非裔美国人. Alamo Promise students can be either full-time or part-time; in fall 2021, 这些学生中有45%的人报告说他们除了上学之外还有工作.
要让这个项目在圣安东尼奥发挥作用, 这个国家的第七大城市这对许多其他城市都有借鉴意义. 虽然圣安东尼奥是美国经济增长最快的地区之一.S.在美国,只有大约一半的高中毕业生上大学,只有34%的人获得学位. 全国65%的工作要求高中以上学历在美国,这个地区面临高技能工人短缺的原因很容易理解.
It’s a challenge for every urban area in the country to produce a sustainable pipeline of workers for today’s jobs, 罗恩·尼伦伯格说, 这个城市的市长. He hopes the college Promise program will help the city chip away at its IT 和 healthcare worker needs, 他说.
“当我们刚开始计划阿拉莫承诺项目时, we called it our moonshot for ending cycles of generational poverty that have been in 圣安东尼奥 for decades,尼伦伯格说. “我们必须打破一些关于高等教育的神话. 如果你想找一份能维持生活的工作, 你必须要有某种高等教育证书.”
但获得证书的成本可能很高. 弗洛雷斯说:“我认为,对我们社区的很多人来说,财务是最重要的. 通过向潜在的学生和他们的家庭保证,他们可以免费获得学位, 该项目“惠及那些, 总的来说, 会选择直接去上班吗.”
现年19岁的加尔扎就是这样. “这让我节省了六年的工作和存钱”来支付大学学费.
“当我把阿拉莫承诺的事告诉妈妈时,她就哭了起来,”同样19岁的吉尔摩说. 她松了一口气.”
Alamo Promise的指导方针相对简单. The five community colleges selected 25 city high schools where the majority of students have not gone on to postsecondary education 和更多的 than half are economically disadvantaged. 阿拉莫承诺为毕业生提供三年的全额学费和杂费, 在学生申请联邦财政援助之后. This program is known as a last-dollar scholarship because it pays whatever costs remain after financial aid. 该计划对参与者没有收入限制.
在第一年, 阿拉莫承诺最终支付了2美元多一点,000 per year for each student; full-time tuition for in-state residents is $3,112. 学校总共投入了1美元.87 million toward Alamo Promise in fiscal year 2021; that’s less than 1 percent of the consortium’s overall $387 million budget. The Promise program pays only for students’ tuition 和 fees; the other services available to students, 包括医疗保健, 托儿所, 和更多的, 所有阿拉莫学生都可以使用,并且从学校的一般预算中支付.
明年秋天, 该项目计划扩大到47所学校, 斯蒂芬妮·瓦斯奎兹说, 阿拉莫承诺的首席项目官.
当该计划在2019年秋季大流行前启动时, high schools ran pep rallies to highlight the offer 和 try to get graduating seniors to “save their seat” at Alamo. 推动奏效了, 有60%的人符合条件,500 students finishing applications for financial aid 和 for admission to one of the Alamo colleges. 差3分,000 enrolled in the fall of 2020; 86 percent of those were Hispanic 和 6 percent African-American.
在瓦格纳高中, 地区负责人, Jeanette Ball pitched students on the program by talking both about her college achievements 和 the debts she incurred. “I wanted to let them know it can be done,”她说。, of earning an associate degree without debt. “这并不容易,但这是可行的,”鲍尔说.
同时让学生毕业时没有债务, 澳门新葡京博彩试图减少其他可能阻碍学生开始的障碍, 继续或完成大学学业. 这就是为什么他们在五个校区都设有食品储藏室的原因, as well as low-cost health centers 和 three 托儿所 centers spread across the schools’ five campuses, 官员说. 阿拉莫还为学生提供紧急经济援助. 去年2月,当严重的冬季风暴席卷该州时, 例如, 导致该州数百万居民断电, 官员们表示,帕洛阿尔托发放了70美元,000到200多名学生, 和, 与圣安东尼奥食品银行合作, 约128,500磅的食物到2,该地区有652人.
当另一所学校的官员问小吉尔伯特·贝塞拉(Gilbert Becerra Jr .., 帕洛阿尔托大学负责学生成功的副校长, 如果这些措施把学校拖出了他们的地盘, 他说, “我们意识到,任何阻碍我们学习的东西都是我们的道路.”
亚历克斯·巴迪洛就是这些项目如何提供帮助的一个例子. 巴迪洛最初在12岁时被捕,在监狱里呆了几年,缓刑了几年. 当他终于上了大学, another arrest not only stopped his progress but left him with a $500 bill he needed to pay before resuming classes. 当他申请圣安东尼奥学院的时候, 那里的官员说, the school not only paid his bill but deposited $800 in his bank account to help him find housing.
“这所学校是我的基石,”他笑着说. “这不仅仅是经济上的支持,还有人相信你.” The 29-year-old is on track this year to become the first in his family to finish college 和 said he hopes to become a probation officer.
玛莎•坎特, 他是大学 Promise的执行董事, 一个为免费大学项目提供支持的全国性非营利组织, 最近的一份报告说 800个障碍物 对学生的保留和成功.
“What keeps a student from staying in school can be something as simple as a bill from four years ago, 汽车故障, 书,”她说。. 这不仅仅是钱的问题. “学生们需要支持、指导和职业道路. 这些支持至关重要.”
几年前, 阿拉莫财团改变了它的咨询理念, to make sure students met with counselors in their major at regular intervals 和 to create so-called “guided pathways,将所有的课程都与就业或转到四年制大学挂钩. 这项工作导致学生获得副学士学位的平均时间从4年缩短.从2015年的6年到3年.2020年76年.
当大流行来袭时,这种改革的另一个好处变得清晰起来. 在2020年春季学期,新冠肺炎迫使所有课程在线上, 这五所学校的150名辅导员记录了近100万次与学生的互动, advising about everything from tech 和 connectivity needs to social 和 emotional welfare to whether they had enough to eat, 阿德利娜·席尔瓦说, 该财团负责学生成功的副校长. More than half of the interactions came through mass weekly emails that advised students about key deadlines 和 resources available to them.
“我们非常非常积极主动,”席尔瓦说. “我们认为这是一种好的侵扰.”
The payoff surprised even the vice chancellor: the course completion rate for Alamo during that semester was 91.8%,这是有史以来最好的成绩,她说.
The 阿拉莫大学’ accomplishments have helped secure passage of a $450 million bond issue for the schools (by a two-to-one margin among voters) 和 have helped officials raise more than $12 million in private funding for Alamo Promise since the program was announced in 2019. 虽然该项目收到了当地团体数百万美元的捐款, the biggest splashes came seven months apart recently when MacKenzie Scott 和 her husb和 Dan Jewett 捐赠 2000万给帕洛阿尔托学院,1500万给圣安东尼奥学院. 官员们表示,其中一些资金将用于“阿拉莫承诺”项目. (联盟中的另外三所大学是东北湖景学院, 西北维斯塔学院和圣. 菲利普的大学.)
这些学校的工作也赢得了全国的赞誉. The five-college district won the 2018 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; 帕洛阿尔托学院 was ranked in the top 1 percent of community colleges nationally by The Aspen Institute in 2019, 和 this year 圣安东尼奥学院 won the Aspen Prize as the best community college in the country.
感谢他们在幕后的辛勤工作, 阿拉莫承诺项目的官员也认为,像加尔扎这样的故事证明了这个项目的价值.
“我没想到我能这么快就走到这么远,”他说. “高中时代的我一定会为自己感到骄傲.”